Principles involved in costing.

The main principles involved in costing medical interventions are introduced with reference to a study on the economic costs imposed on Australia by stroke. These principles include the need to establish the viewpoint to be taken in the analysis, the use of marginal rather than average costs and the role of discounting. The concepts of financial versus economic costs, capital versus recurrent costs, overhead costs and transfer payments are explained. This paper should be read in conjunction with the earlier paper on cost-effectiveness analysis.